On the 25th of September, 2016, the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee submitted a comprehensive complaint to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, regarding the frequent and systematic extrajudicial killing of Palestinians in the Hebron’s Old City district since September of 2015.

Since then, 32 Palestinians were slain there. 4 of the 32 killings have occurred within the past 10 days. The use of force by Israeli military personnel has shown, according to the PNN, not to be in proportion to perceived threats — if such a threat exists — in direct contravention of international law.

Additionally, in all cases, Israeli military forces prevented Palestinian medical staff from rendering life-saving medical care to victims. Israeli military medics offered no aid and, instead, forced Palestinian victims to lay on the ground bleeding and suffering for nearly one hour before Israeli ambulances arrived. This intentional prevention of medical aid directly violates international law and constitutes torture, under the internationally accepted definitions.

The complaint also states how Israeli government forces and settlers strategically use instances where Palestinians are killed to expand settlement activities and further expel Palestinians from the Old City of Hebron. The killings, related impunity and settlement expansion are all methods used in a larger attempt by the Israeli government to ethnically cleanse the Old City of Palestinians.

Urgent intervention is needed by human rights organizations, diplomats, foreign governments, UN agencies and other actors. The Hebron Rehabilitation Committee has called on these organizations, individuals and groups to work quickly, in an attempt to protect Palestinians in Old City Hebron, and to pressure the Israeli government to meet their human rights obligations and abide by international law.

All forms of assistance are needed and advocacy initiatives must take place without delay.

Al-Aqsa in Danger Festival, an annual occasion organized by the Islamic Movement to celebrate the Islamic idiosyncrasy and sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque, has been blocked this year after the Israeli authorities banned the Islamic Movement in 1948 occupied Palestine last November.

The festival was first held in 1996 when the Israeli occupation had stepped up Judaization schemes at and around the holy al-Aqsa, by digging tunnels under the holy shrine.

However, the festival was not held this year after the Israeli authorities outlawed the Islamic Movement and its affiliated institutions in November 2015.

Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, deputy leader of the Islamic Movement, stressed that the prevention of the festival is a foregone conclusion of the Israeli ban on the Islamic Movement.

The festival has become an international event followed up by Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims around the world, he said.

“Al-Aqsa in Danger festival was not held this year due to the Israeli ban on Islamic Movement’s activities; however, this doesn’t mean anything. Al-Aqsa Mosque will be always the central issue for all Muslims.”

Tens of thousands of people used to attend al-Aqsa in Danger Festival in Umm al-Fahm city within the Green Line amid large participation of Palestinian national and Islamic figures.

President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas attended Friday the funeral of former Israeli leader Shimon Peres, who is remembered as a war criminal among Palestinian people.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas extended condolences to the family of Peres, who passed away at the age of 93 on Wednesday two weeks after suffering a massive stroke.

However, Arab members of Israeli Knesset t have refused to express condolences or attend the funeral. While every other political party in the Knesset released statements honoring Peres, the Arab Joint List party refused, even upon request.

Ayman Odeh, chairman of the party, tweeted in defense of the decision that “the memory of Peres in the Arab public is different from the narrative discussed in recent years”.

“Peres’s memory in the Arab community is different from the narrative that has been spoken about over the past few days and I understand that it is difficult to hear such complicated messages in the moments after his death,” Odeh wrote on his twitter account.

He said that in recent years Peres “didn’t pursue real peace” and participated in state-building efforts which, since 1948, “brought disaster to my nation.”

No Joint List MKs visited Peres’s casket on Thursday as he lay in state at the Knesset. Peres, known as one of the main pillars of the Israeli occupation authority, died on Wednesday at 93 following a stroke suffered two weeks earlier.

Peres was known as Israel's last remaining “founding father.” During his tenure as president, the Israeli military launched two brutal wars against blockaded Gaza in 2009 and 2014, killing some 3,700 Palestinians.

Peres was also a staunch supporter of the crippling Israeli siege on the Palestinian enclave. When he was in office as premier in 1996, the regime shelled a United Nations compound near Qana, a village in southern Lebanon, where hundreds of locals were sheltering. The raid killed 106 people and injured around 116 others.

The Hamas Movement has called on Palestinian Authority president to reverse his decision to attend the funeral of Israeli war criminal Shimon Peres.

In a press release on Thursday, Hamas warned that such a step would encourage other Arab parties to normalize relations with Israel and result in disastrous impacts on the Palestinian national endeavor.

According to different Israeli media outlets, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday approved Abbas's request to participate in the funeral of Peres, the former Israeli president, to be held on Friday.

The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) have tightened military grip in Occupied Jerusalem in anticipation of the funeral of Israel’s former president Shimon Peres.

The IOA banned Gazans’ access into Occupied Jerusalem to perform their Friday prayers at the holy al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli sources said the occupation police sealed off all access roads leading to Mount Herzl and Ben Gurion crossroads, along with several other entrances to Jerusalem’s outskirts.

The closure is to be maintained from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and resumed from 12:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Traffic jams are expected to crop up prior to and during Peres’s funeral. Over 90 delegations representing 70 countries around the world will join the funeral procession.

US rights and faith organizations, Wednesday, called on US President Barack Obama to investigate Israeli army killing of a US citizen of Palestinian origins, according to a press release.

Fifteen organizations sent a letter to Obama calling on him to demand that Israel publicly release all evidence related to the recent investigation into the fatal shooting of Mahmoud Shaalan, by Israeli soldiers.

On February 26, Shaalan, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American born and raised in Florida, was shot by Israeli soldiers multiple times at a checkpoint near the Beit El settlement, just north of Ramallah in the occupied Palestinian territory. After Shaalan was shot, soldiers reportedly stripped his body, left him bleeding on the road for more than two hours, and prevented a Palestinian ambulance from approaching.

Israeli authorities have, according to WAFA, informed U.S. officials that they found no criminal wrongdoing and that Israel will no further pursue the case. Israel has not released any details or evidence collected from the investigation.

“We are also calling on the administration to conduct an independent investigation into the killing of Mahmoud Shaalan,” said Raed Jarrar, government relations manager at American Friends Service Committee. “As the largest supplier of military aid to Israel, the U.S. has a responsibility to make sure weapons we supplied were not used in this unlawful killing.”

“At a time when cameras have documented officer-involved shootings of civilians in the US, it is shocking that the White House has yet to publicly demand that Israel release the video footage from its own fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Mahmoud Shaalan,” said Sunjeev Bery, Middle East North Africa Advocacy Director for Amnesty International USA. “It is time for the Obama Administration to publicly demand that Israel release all video footage from the military checkpoint where Israeli soldiers fatally shot a U.S. citizen.”

“Israel has enjoyed utter impunity for killing United States citizens Rachel Corrie, Furkan Do?an, and now Mahmoud Shaalan, as well as gravely injuring many more,” said Maria LaHood, Deputy Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “It is long past time for the United States government to stand up to Israel and demand transparency and accountability for killing our citizens, and to conduct its own thorough investigation.”

“The Jewish tradition teaches, that ‘whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he has destroyed an entire world,’” said Rabbi Joseph Berman, Manager of Government Affairs and Grassroots Advocacy Jewish Voice for Peace. “When the state has taken a life, they have destroyed an entire world and they are obligated to investigate and take responsibility for their actions.”

Signatories of the letter include the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Presbyterian Church (USA), Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Defense for Children International – Palestine, and the National Lawyers Guild.

Rage has flared up within the pro-Palestine community as the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute Wednesday to the late former Israeli president Shimon Peres who died earlier on the day.

Human rights activists slammed Abbas for sending a message of condolence to the family of the former Israeli president Shimon Peres, expressing his sadness and sorrow.

Abbas hailed Peres as a “brave” partner for peace and extended his condolences over his death. “Peres was a partner in making the brave peace with the martyr Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Rabin, and made unremitting efforts to reach a lasting peace from the Oslo agreement until the final moments of his life,” Abbas was quoted as claiming.

Anti-occupation activists lashed out at Peres, describing him as a criminal and an architect of the illegal settlement movement. Calling him a murderer, a hashtag was launched by human rights activists on social media networks under the slogan “condolences for the murderer.”

The activists enumerated the countless crimes committed by Perez, including the 1996 Qana Massacre in Lebanon, the tripartite aggression on Egypt in 1956, and the wars on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The activists also reminded the world of the butcheries committed by Peres against the Palestinian people and the Hagannah onslaughts which he supported. A notorious arms dealer, Peres died at 93 following complications from a stroke he had suffered a couple of weeks ago.

His reputation has long been blemished by his involvement in the arms deals struck by Zionist militias before the establishment of "Israel" on the land of Palestine. Peres was also responsible for building the Dimona nuclear reactor.

As prime minister (twice); as minister of war, foreign affairs, finance and transportation; and, until 2014, as president, Peres never left the public stage during Israel’s seven decades.

He led the creation of Israel’s war industry, negotiated key arms deals with France and Germany and was the prime instigator behind the development of Israel’s nuclear weapons and war arsenal.

Unlike what has been circulated, Peres was never honest and consistent in his search for a settlement with the Arab world. Chosen by Parliament in 2007 to serve a seven-year term as president, which is largely ceremonial in Israel, Peres had complicated relations with the hawkish government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, elected in 2009.

Israeli extremist groups are preparing for a massive break-in into al-Aqsa Mosque next week starting from Sunday to celebrate the Jewish holidays, QPress revealed.

Israeli police forces declared a state of high alert to protect thousands of settlers during their collective break-in into the holy shrine.

The Israeli alleged Temple organizations called on their websites and Facebook pages for mass participation in the planned break-ins next month.

QPress pointed out that Israeli break-ins into the compound have intensively escalated after Eid al-Adha in coincidence with the almost-daily arrest campaigns against Palestinian youths in occupied Jerusalem and within the Green Line.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor revealed in a new report issued Wednesday that Israel has adopted a systematic campaign to prevent activists and NGO workers from working in the Palestinian territories.

The international secretary of Euro-Med, Pam Bailey, is one of the victims of the surging number of deportations, and the NGO called on the council to file a formal complaint against Israel with international bodies.

“We are not individuals who want to live and work in Israel; rather, we seek the right to do so in the Palestinian territories,” notes Bailey.

“The Israeli government likes to claim it is not a prison warden. But what else is it if it controls who Palestinians choose to welcome as visitors and consultants?”

An analysis of UN data conducted by the Euro-Med Monitor shows that a recent surge in reports of deportations of individuals attempting to transit through Israel to work with Palestinians is apparently the result of an official strategy implemented by the Israeli government beginning in January of this year.

Reports submitted to the Access Coordination Unit (ACU) of the United Nations Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator show that in 2015, only 1 percent of the 384 “incidents” encountered by UN and international NGO employees and consultants resulted in deportations.

Rather, the vast majority of the problems (76 percent) were delays. The same pattern was observed in the previous three years. However, through September 20 of this year, “mere” delays (which can last hours) dropped to 58 percent of the 232 reported incidents; instead, there was a dramatic increase in forced cancellation of trips (18 percent) and deportations (9-10 percent).

By far the most incidents were reported at Erez, the crossing from Israel into Gaza, indicating that travelers to the blockaded Strip are particularly targeted. About 4 percent of UN employees were denied permits.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intensified since the outbreak of Jerusalem Intifada in early October 2015 arrest campaigns across the occupied territories, rights group revealed.

Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies revealed that 8,000 arrests were reported since last October including 2,155 minors, 270 women, and 250 online activists.

The center pointed out that most of the detainees were subjected to severe torture and ill-treatment in Israeli jails and detention centers. 1,773 administrative detention orders were also issued during the reported period, the report added.

40 female minors and four Palestinian MPs were also among the documented arrests. During the reported period, 110 old men over the age of 60, 23 academics, 190 people with special needs, and 79 journalists were detained.

The center said that two Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli jails due to the Israeli deliberate medical negligence.

As Palestinians mark the 20th anniversary of the tunnel uprising, Sheikh Salah’s voice resonates from behind prison bars, reminding the world that his fears of an Israeli “tunnel flood” were as true as the sky is blue.

While Sheikh Salah is being locked up in Israeli jails just because he spoke his mind, Israeli excavations underneath Islamic and Christian holy sites in Occupied Jerusalem have hit the zenith.

It was in 1995 that Sheikh Salah unveiled a chain of Israeli secret tunnels. In one of his unforgettable appearances, Sheikh Salah emerged with his blue trousers and winter jacket while he crept into one of the secret underground tunnels furtively dug by Israel.

Statements released by Sheikh Salah in that very year -1995- sounded the alarm over two Israeli tunnels beneath the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and urged the world to take action immediately.

A set of videos and live snapshots released by Sheikh Salah on January 1, 1997, during a press conference in the Ambassador Hotel, showcased excavations dug up under the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Pictures of cracks rocking the walls and foundations of the Mosque and adjacent holy sites were captured on tape and photographed by Salah.

Shortly after Salah’s shocking testimonies, the Israeli occupation government kept boiling with rage.

Israel’s former internal security minister—Avigdor Kahalani at the time—embarked on a ferocious ad-hominem campaign which did not only aim at blemishing Salah’s reputation but also stirred up outspoken incitement against him.

Though he was kidnapped by the occupation forces in 2003 and detained for over 30 months, Sheikh Salah has never thrown in the towel.

Just a few days after his release, he resumed his field probes, exposing as many sites as he possibly could.

On January 3, 2006, Sheikh Salah leaked other videos and photos of a Jewish Synagogue established beneath the al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam.

Reappearing on stage on June 17, 2006, Salah unmasked new Israeli subways beneath the al-Aqsa and its surrounding sites. Sheikh Salah continued to speak up against such Israeli schemes upon various other occasions in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009 he sounded the alarm over a 600-meter-long tunnel network in Silwan heading toward the al-Aqsa place of worship and called for an urgent counteraction.

Another set of exclusive maps and testimonies released by Sheikh Salah on February 10, 2013 provided detailed accounts of Israel’s projected execution of a plan to construct a Jewish synagogue, an operational police station, and showrooms, all connected to the tunnels dug up below al-Aqsa.

Though Sheikh Salah’s body is tied up to Israeli prison manacles, his voice continues to make its way into Palestinians’ and Muslims’ anti-occupation annals.